The Lansing region and Michigan as a whole have a growing number of marijuana patients and caregivers with state-issued cards. Expect 2018 to be an eventful year for a growing industry that could generate billions of dollars for the state. Eric Lacy / Lansing State Journal

The universal symbol is what will have to appear on most medical marijuana products that are sold in Michigan to warn people that the product being sold contains THC, the psychoactive ingredient in cannabis that allows people to get high.(Photo: Dept. of Licensing and Regulatory Affairs)

LANSING — A judge has denied the city’s motion to dismiss a lawsuit from a group challenging Lansing’s medical marijuana ordinance.

Ingham County Circuit Court Judge James Jamo submitted an order last week that rejected most of the city’s arguments in response to a campaign called Let Lansing Vote.

The group sued the city in November 2017, alleging City Clerk Chris Swope had improperly invalidated a petition containing signatures needed to suspend the marijuana ordinance. That would give City Council a choice to repeal the ordinance or, failing that, put the matter before voters.

In a Nov. 1 news release, the City Clerk’s Office said the Let Lansing Vote petition was 26 signatures short of the number necessary to represent the required 5% of the city’s registered voters. Swope said last month that the release contained a “math error” and should have stated the petition was 46 signatures short.

Regardless, Let Lansing Vote alleges the clerk improperly threw out 300 signatures, which would have been more